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In Part 2 of our annual Top 10 Films of the Year bonanza, co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie continue the countdown and discussion of their favourite movies released in 2016. If you haven’t already, be sure to seek out and listen to Part 1 (covering our picks 10 to 5 plus a whole lot more) before diving into this second instalment.

The bulk of this episode is understandably dedicated to resuming our Top 10 countdown with an appreciation of picks 4, 3 and 2 in our individual lists before finally unveiling and discussing our personal picks for our favourite film of the year.

Also, interspersed throughout the episode is a showcase of the remaining community submissions from the Movie Matters listeners, including an MP3 from James Perkins of GameBurst, The Renaissance Men and The Digital Fix Film Podcast. We also tally up and disclose the results of our usual collated Movie Matters Listener Top 10 Fave Films of the Year and other related categories based on all submissions received. Once again, we thank again each and every one of you who participated in sending in your own list for this special two-parter.

We also take the opportunity to briefly name and shame our least liked UK 2016 releases (expect our customarily controversial picks). Plus we highlight our honourable mentions - the films that narrowly got pushed out of our Top 10s. Moreover, we give a quick mention for our favourite TV shows broadcast in the past twelve months and our most cherished home video releases of the year. To close, we offer a mini-preview of the upcoming 2017 UK releases we are most keen to see.

The music in this episode is sampled from a selection of films eligible for inclusion in our Top 10 lists. We’ll keep the identities of the tracks a mystery, but why not try and guess the films as these musical cues appear throughout the show?

We hope you enjoy listening to parts one and two of the Movie Matters Top 10 Films of 2016 special. Do let us know your thoughts on our lists and any other feedback you’d care to give us by sending an email to moviematterspodcast@gmail.com or leaving a comment on our website. Thank you.

The 2017 film awards season has now been and gone, and whether you enjoyed the glitz and glamour or despaired at the lack of representation of your personal favourite movies of the year, Movie Matters belatedly kicks off another year of film appreciation and discussion with Part One of a two-part special celebrating our take on the past year in cinema.

In Part one, co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie count down numbers 10 to 5 of their Top 10 favourite films of 2016 lists. We also share two batches of listener lists, featuring MP3s from Lapsed Gamer Radio’s Cevin Moore and Dan Sardella of Focus on Film. This first instalment of our annual year in review epic closes with us highlighting some of our biggest disappointments and most pleasant surprises.

Stay tuned for Part Two, where we reveal our Top 4 through 1 films, more listener lists, a 2017 preview and more...

Note: During this episode Lee refers to a beloved childhood animated movie as “Animal Olympics”. Contrary to his admittedly hazy memory, this was NOT a Disney film but a 1980 Warner Bros. movie called ANIMALYMPICS.

The music in this episode is sampled from a selection of films eligible for inclusion in our Top 10 lists. We’ll keep the identities of the tracks a mystery, but why not try and guess the films as these musical cues appear throughout the show?

We would like to once again thank our loyal and esteemed listeners, many of whom answered our call and kindly submitted their own text and audio lists this year. Don’t worry if you don’t hear your list on Part One. Rest assured it will be included on the forthcoming Part Two.

With 2016 finally drawing to a close we would like to wish each and every one of our loyal listeners a very Happy New Year! Recorded earlier this year and saved for this celebratory occasion we invite you to enjoy the return of Movie Matters [Music]: our spin-off series where soaring, bombastic, introspective and timeless film scores reverberate. To begin Volume 7, Lee Howard plays quizmaster and challenges co-hosts Michael Mackenzie and Dan Sardella to a “Guess the Giallo Grooves” game, how many can you answer correctly? The trio then curate a grab bag of tracks chosen by themselves as well as featuring a number of long overdue listener soundtrack requests (many thanks to Phil Walsh, Bryan McGrath, Wilson McLachlan and Tony Black).

As is our custom, we’ve deliberately omitted the track listing from this post in an attempt to keep the soundtrack choices a surprise. On that note, beware of reading the “links for reference” below if you do not wish to see any potential spoilers. However, for those curious, please refer to our dedicated Movie Matters [Music] Discography list on LetterBoxd. This ongoing list will be updated with the full track and composer information should you wish to seek out and purchase the full scores.

We extend a special thank you to Focus on Film’s Dan Sardella, for composing and creating our all-new dedicated Movie Matters [Music] Intro and Outro themes as well as editing this episode for us.

Remember, we’d love for you to get in touch – moviematterspodcast@gmail.com – and let us know your thoughts on this episode/the film music we featured. Moreover, why not request a track you’d like to hear on a future Movie Matters [Music] instalment? Please include details of the composer, the track name, the film/soundtrack the piece is from and most importantly why you like it.

So settle in with a beverage and a comfy pair of headphones, count down the demise of 2016 with some fine film music and commentary with your friends at Movie Matters. We raise a glass with you, to 2017 and the films and film scores to come. Happy New Year!

Greetings, listeners! A smorgasbord of seasonal spooktacular scintillations awaits you as co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie tackle two distinctly different but nonetheless thematically linked festive horror treats. First up is KRAMPUS, Michael Dougherty’s 2015 tale of warring families and malevolent demons, followed by THE CHILDREN, Tom Shankland’s 2008 survival horror about the New Year party from hell. As is our custom, we also exchange gifts in our attempts to plug any noticeable gaps in each other’s 2016 viewing.

If you haven’t already done so, please consider submitting your own “Top 10 of 2016” lists for inclusion in our annual round-up, to be recorded early in the new year. The deadline is Saturday 14th January. Full details can be found in this post. See also our own still-growing eligibility list of titles.

And, if you fancy giving us a Christmas gift, why not leave us a review on our NEW iTunes feed? For every one we receive, we’re giving away a random DVD or BD from our collections.

The music in this episode is from ARTHUR CHRISTMAS by Harry Gregson-Williams, KRAMPUS by Douglas Pipes and THE CHILDREN by Stephen Hilton. Special thanks to Cevin Moore for the custom intro and outro themes.

With December arrived, let us take this opportunity to wish all our listeners (both long time members of the Movie Matters Podcast film appreciation community and newcomers alike) a very Merry Christmas! We hope you are enjoying the festive season and we also extend a very Happy New Year to you all! Roll on 2017 and another bumper year of movies.

Preparations are now under-way here at MM HQ – as we cram in any final notable films before locking our lists – to record and release our customary epic “Top 10 Films of the Year” episode. You can check on our viewing progress by perusing our 2016 UK Cinema Releases Eligibility List. Please feel free to leave a comment on that list recommending any films you feel we must make it a priority to see before finalising our respective Top 10 lists.

Our bumper-length yearly review shows are a cherished Movie Matters tradition – we’ve done one every year since we started the podcast back in 2010, and they’ve always proved to be interesting affairs with plenty of passionate and respectful differences of opinion.

As with our previous Top 10 specials, we’d love it if as many of our listeners as possible could submit their own Top 10 lists, either in text or MP3 form. (If submitting an MP3, please try to keep it below five minutes in length.) The criteria for which films qualify for inclusion are yours to decide, though let us know what they are. (Some examples: films released theatrically in your home country in 2016; released theatrically in the film’s country of origin in 2016; released on DVD/Blu-ray in 2016.)

In addition to your Top 10 favourites list, we’d also be very happy to hear what your biggest disappointment was, most pleasant surprise and indeed what your worst film of the year was. You can even namecheck your favourite TV show of 2016 too as well as your pick of the best DVD/Blu-ray release of the year.

NOTE: The DEADLINE for all listener list submissions is Saturday, 14th January, 2017.

Please leave a comment with your lists below or send them to moviematterspodcast@gmail.com.

We look forward to hearing from you and featuring your contributions on the finished podcast episode!

Welcome to a long lost instalment of Movie Matters [Music]: our spin-off series where soaring, bombastic, introspective and timeless film scores reverberate. Originally recorded for Halloween (circa 2014), join Lee and Michael for an all-horror themed sixth volume in which we listen to and discuss a beastly bounty of horror scores from films featuring serial killers, vampires, agents of the supernatural, Satan himself and even a razor-wielding chimp!

We thank listener and devourer of film music (horror or otherwise), Giles Edwards for his two featured track requests.

As is our custom, we’ve deliberately omitted the track listing from this post in an attempt to keep the soundtrack choices a surprise. On that note, beware of reading the “links for reference” below if you do not wish to see any potential spoilers.

Remember, we’d love for you to get in touch – moviematterspodcast@gmail.com – and let us know your thoughts on this episode/the film music we featured. Moreover, why not request a track you’d like to hear on a future Movie Matters [Music] instalment? Please include details of the composer, the track name, the film/soundtrack the piece is from and most importantly why you like it.

We hope, like us, you feel there’s always occasion to listen to horror scores no matter the time of year and that you welcome this salvaged episode as a belated Halloween treat or an early Christmas gift from us to you. Thanks for listening!

It’s that special time of the year once again as the Movie Matters Podcast rises from the coffin for its seventh annual Halloween special. Lee Howard, Michael Mackenzie and guest host Daniel Sardella (of the Media Meltdown network’s Focus on Film podcast) cast their critical eyes over three fang-tastic vampire films: Roman Polanski’s 1967 horror-comedy THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (a.k.a. DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES), Kathryn Bigelow’s haunting 1987 vampire-western NEAR DARK, and Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s funnybone-tingling 2014 mockumentary WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS.

Three spooktacular horror DVDs and BDs are also up for grabs. Listen to the end for details of how to enter the competition!

The music in this episode is from THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS by Krzysztof Komeda, NEAR DARK by Tangerine Dream, and WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS by Norma Tanega. The intro and outro music was composed by Cevin Moore.

Special thanks to Cevin Moore, Alan @ Halloween Fury and Tristan Lofting for their opinions on our three featured movies. Happy Halloween, everybody! Be scared but be safe.

As some of you may know we’ve been sharing our back catalogue of episodes with community radio station Radio Warwickshire over the past ten months, with weekly broadcasts of our past shows to celebrate Movie Matters turning five years old last October. To date, forty instalments of Movie Matters aired on Radio Warwickshire consisting of hours and hours of our in-depth film discussion.*

We have taken the decision to end this collaboration going forward and would like to thank Clay Lowe and Liane Kate for the opportunity to share our work via this extended platform. We wish the presenters, artists, content producers and the station continued success in the future.

Most importantly, we would like to offer an immense thanks to each and every listener who tuned-in to these broadcasts. We are extremely grateful for the continued support and enthusiasm of the Movie Matters community. Roll on October 2016 which marks our 6th year podcasting! All new Movie Matters episodes will be forthcoming and released, as usual, here on our website and our iTunes feed.

*Note: It has come to our attention that some of these broadcasts may have been truncated due to circumstances beyond our control. We regret any inconvenience caused to those listening and direct you to our archive where all of our shows, in their entirety, are available to stream (left click on the Download box) or download (right-click and save on the Download box).

Today’s instalment of the Movie Matters Podcast sees co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie taking a look at a pair of thrillers from the heyday of Italian cult cinema, both starring distinctive American actress Mimsy Farmer. First up, we begin by discussing Farmer’s career and unique appeal with special help from friend of the show, author Troy Howarth (SO DEADLY, SO PERVERSE). We then cover two distinctly different films which nonetheless share a great many characteristics: 1974’s THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK and 1975’s AUTOPSY.

The music in today’s episode is from THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK by Nicola Piovani, and AUTOPSY and FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET by Ennio Morricone.

Special thanks to Troy Howarth, Sandy Richardson, Leonard Jacobs, Andrew Liverod, Torsten Luth and Cevin Moore for their thoughts on today’s featured films, and to Ian Hill for his feedback on our recent Luciano Ercoli/Nieves Navarro double bill.